Kinds of Love
by theplaywrite
Summary: Almanzo and Laura ended their engagement and Albert had been trying to help his sister get over the man she once loved. Little does he know that his actions of affection reach Laura in a much different way than he had intended.


Kinds of Love

"Laura! Stop!" Albert screamed at his sister as he shoved her away.

"Albert. I don't..."

Albert and Laura Ingalls, siblings by adoption, found themselves standing inside their family's barn in the middle of the night. Laura needed to vent about her frustrations and hatred towards Almanzo Wilder one last time. Albert, who had been trying to help his sister get over her ended engagement with Almanzo, offered to listen and give her support. He had no idea it would lead to this.

"Laura..." Albert knew what words he wanted to say, but he could not get them out of his mouth. He had never been so stunned in his life before. "Why did you just...kiss me?"

Laura, on the other hand, was completely clueless on what to say to her brother. What on earth had come over her. "Albert, I-I...I don't...I wasn't..." She could not stop herself from stuttering.

Albert grabbed Laura's shoulders and tried to calm her down. The last thing they needed was their parents walking in and asking them what happened. "Laura, calm down. Okay."

"I'm s-sorry." Tears started to form in her eyes. "I don't know what came over me. You were right there and I just..."

"It's okay." Albert spoke softly to Laura, almost too softly.

Laura shook her head. "No. No, it's not okay. You're my brother. I shouldn't be thinking this way about you. I shouldn't have these feelings-"

"Wait." He stopped her. "Feelings? You have feelings for me?"

Laura pushed her brother's hands off of her shoulders and turned away from him in self-disgust. "I don't know how it happened. You were spending so much time with me after Almanzo and I ended our engagement, trying to make me feel better and helping me get over him. No one has ever done anything like that for me before."

Albert shook his head in disbelief. "I just wanted my sister back. You were so lost without Almanzo in your life."

"Well, I don't need him in my life anymore."

There was a long pause of unsettling silence between the two. Albert was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his sister could have feelings for him, feelings that were more than just a brotherly-sisterly love. Then, an idea started crawling up from the back of his mind. Did he have feelings for Laura?

Her kiss was so genuine, so sure and so...nice. Albert did not back away when he realized Laura had moved awfully close to him. What if the years of living as brother and sister brought them together for this moment, where all their underlying feelings would reveal themselves? Albert loved Laura. There was no question about that, but now they were both wondering what kind of love was there between them.

Albert reached out his hand for Laura's shoulder and turned her to face him. He realized that what he was doing was completely and utterly wrong, but in the darkness of the night, he did not care. Laura's eyes seemed to draw him in. Albert leaned forward and kissed Laura lightly on her lips, waiting for that confusing feeling to return. Laura did not move.

It was not an intense kiss, not a passionate one. It was the kiss of two young children still trying to figure out if this was what love felt like. After slowly breaking away from one another, Laura and Albert stared into each others eyes.

"Albert?" Laura finally broke the silence. "Would you run for me?"

"What? Run for you?" Albert was puzzled by Laura's vague question.

"Would you run for me?" She repeated.

After taking a moment to collect his thoughts, the young man finally opened his mouth. "I'd run to the other side of the country for you."

"Would you fight for me?"

"I'd fight any man if he was trying to hurt you."

"Would you lie for me?"

"I'd lie for you as long as we could stay together."

"Albert, do you love me?"

It took him a moment to answer, but when he did, Albert was never more sure of the words he was speaking. "I've liked you since the first day we met, back in Winoka when my dime fell under the street broads and you helped me fish it out. I've loved you ever since you started calling me your little brother."

"And now?"

"Now…"

Albert almost said he had romantic feelings for Laura. He almost said he did not want to be an Ingalls anymore, if that meant he could not be with Laura. He wanted to sweep her off her feet and kiss her in a way no other man could. But that was an unrealistic fairytale, and Laura had already found her prince charming.

"You're my sister, Laura. You're hurting. You're confused. You're missing the man you love. You're missing the love you and Almanzo had."

Laura backed away from Albert, not liking his answer to her question. How could he say something like that? Almanzo broke her heart, walked away from their engagement like it was nothing and left her in tears.

"Laura." Albert tried to talk some sense into his sister, now that he had regained most of his own. "I don't know if you are still are in love with Almanzo, but spending two years of your life trying to get him to fall in love you has thrown off your perception of what love is. I care about you and I love you, because you're my sister."

Laura stood motionless. What if Albert was right? What if she was still in love with Almanzo, but did not accept it? Kissing Albert and pretending to fall in love with him was just a way for her to cope for the loss of her true love, the love she let get away. "I still love Almanzo, but I don't want to...not anymore."

"But, he still loves you too." Albert blurted out, not wanting to see his sister start crying for that man again.

"Wait…he does?" Laura mumbled unsurely.

"Of course." He smiled. "Every time I see Almanzo in town, he's always asking me about you. Just because you two got into a fight, that doesn't mean that you've stopped loving each other. Think of all the times we've gotten into dumb arguments and that never stopped us from caring about each other."

A smile formed on Laura's face. She thought Almanzo stopped loving her once he ended their engagement, but he still loved her and she still loved him. "Albert, I'm sorry for throwing you around like this. I think you're right about everything. Can you walk with me to the Wilder's place? I want to go apologize to Almanzo and tell him…that I love him."

Albert looked outside the barn in confusion. "But, it's the middle of the night."

"I don't care. My true love is waiting for me."


End file.
